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1.2.1-Caramarthenfan
Half-assed Brick Club catchup 1.2.1-1.2.7 I don’t have the energy to do a full-brain-dump, as we’re getting into Valjean Chapters I Have A Lot of Feels About and I’ve rambled before about Valjean and dissociation, plus I’m pretty sure others have hit most of the points I would and I don’t have time to catch up on the tags. 1.2.1 THE EVENING OF A DAY OF WALKING Enter Jean Valjean! The shortest modern route between Toulon and Digne is 156 km (97 miles), so he has been doing a staggering amount of walking since his release, presumably on little food since he hasn’t been spending his money and no one wants to sell him food anyway. One thing I find interesting compared to the musical is that in the musical it’s implied that he’s trying his best to be honest, but in the book he’s…really not. And I don’t blame him for not being upfront about his papers and being an ex-con, given people’s reactions, but the first person who is nice to him (albeit not knowing his situation), he cons out of money: "Because I have no money." "Alas!" said Madame de R——, "I have only four sous in my purse." "Give it to me all the same." The man took the four sous. Madame de R—— continued: “You cannot obtain lodgings in an inn for so small a sum. But have you tried? It is impossible for you to pass the night thus. You are cold and hungry, no doubt. Some one might have given you a lodging out of charity.” He does it casually: this is a man who feels wronged by the world and will take it for what he can get. This woman is better off than him, so obviously she doesn’t need those four sous, and he’s willing to get them by lying (he does have money), and isn’t even courteous about it. 1.2.2 PRUDENCE COUNSELLED TO WISDOM Don’t have anything to say about this chapter, other than that Hugo describes the townsfolk perceiving Valjean as un bohémien, un va-nu-pieds in a way that sure looks like a non-racial usage of the terms to me, but to drive home his vagabond status as a parolee. It’s also parallel linguistically to the much much later description of Cosette: Il y avait dans ses veines du '''sang de bohémienne' et d’aventurière qui va pieds nus, which I think is interesting. '''1.2.3 THE HEROISM OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE' Someone mentioned that in this chapter, Valjean has only extremes of emotion. He’s lost all the social in-betweens in prison, and I think this is true, and heartbreaking. The only follow-up to conning Madame de R–– out of her four sous is I have money—savings. One hundred and nine francs fifteen sous, which I earned in the galleys by my labor, in the course of nineteen years. I will pay. And then: I have still the whole of my money. In four days I have spent only twenty-five sous, which I earned by helping unload some wagons at Grasse. Valjean is very specific on the fifteen sous. Is he including the four from Made de R––, or is one hundred and nine francs fifteen sous solely his earnings from the galleys? Also, in four days, he’s come at least 97 miles (that’s more than 25 miles a day) while helping to unload some wagons. Although, actually, if he went via Grasse and the road system in the 19th century wasn’t dramatically different, that’s 253 km (157 mi), which is more like 39 miles a day. He says he’s been “12 leagues” on foot that day, which is about 67 km (42 mi). I’m…starting to find my credibility strained, unless he doesn’t actually need to sleep. 20 miles a day is a solid pace for someone used to that kind of walking, which Valjean is not. I suspect Hugo was pulling numbers out of his ass. The other thing I noticed in this chapter is that Madame Magloire apparently does not eat with Baptistine and Myriel, even when they’re having an ex-con at the table. Myriel may be charitable and humble and all, but apparently not enough to avoid preserving the social distinction between master and servant. 1.2.4 DETAILS CONCERNING THE CHEESE-DAIRIES OF PONTARLIER I don’t care if epistolary fiction is kind of unrealistic, I love it and I was thrilled to see a bit more of Baptistine’s POV. I’m actually not sure it is so unrealistic in a time when people did a lot more letter-writing than they do today. 19th century letters that I’ve read have been excruciatingly detailed at times. People thought nothing of writing extremely long letters. I know I’ve reproduced entire conversations in blog entries—and likely they’re not word-for-word, but I am sure Baptistine’s version of the dinner conversation isn’t word-for-word, either. 1.2.5 TRANQUILITY Nothing to say. 1.2.6 and 1.2.7 JEAN VALJEAN and THE INTERIOR OF DESPAIR I can’t actually separate these chapters, which I reread roughly a million times while working on my depressing Valjean in Toulon story. I don’t know that I have anything particularly new to say that I didn’t say then, but I still think Hugo paints a pretty vivid portrait of psychological dissociation, most especially derealization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derealization, which is “an alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems unreal. Other symptoms include feeling as though one’s environment is lacking in spontaneity, emotional coloring and depth.” For example: Everything which had happened to him seemed to him absurd; everything that surrounded him seemed to him impossible. He said to himself, “It is a dream.” He gazed at the galley-sergeant standing a few paces from him; the galley-sergeant seemed a phantom to him. All of a sudden the phantom dealt him a blow with his cudgel. Visible nature hardly existed for him. It would almost be true to say that there existed for Jean Valjean neither sun, nor fine summer days, nor radiant sky, nor fresh April dawns. I know not what vent-hole daylight habitually illumined his soul. I could easily pull a dozen more quotes. And here I wrote a bunch of stuff about the Ignorantins and prison reform and education but then Tumblr ate it and next time I’m composing my commentary in a text document. Goddammit. Commentary Pilferingapples Nothing to really add, I’m just enjoying your analyses of Valjean’s mental health! I’ve always been impressed with how much I can recognize what would now be textbook psychological indicators in Hugo’s character descriptions, I’m glad someone else is as interested! Prudencepaccard I have a hard time keeping those two chapters straight, too. In general, “Jean Valjean” is about Faverolles!Valjean and how he got to Toulon, and “The Interior of Despair” is about what happened in Toulon. You’re writing a Valjean in Toulon fic???? Please know that if you have any questions I am an open book, translated from the French. (I’m not sure if that metaphor made sense) (What I’m trying to say is that I have access to primary and secondary sources in French whose contents I can communicate to you) Analyzing Valjean’s mental state in “The Interior of Despair” is one of my favorite hobbies. I agree 100% that he is experiencing derealization; I would also argue that it is a symptom of his larger condition, namely peritraumatic dissociation, and that this is the period at which he develops the PTSD that we see later in “The Chain-Gang. Caramarthenfan (reply to Prudencepaccard) Yeah—I just feel like those chapters go together so tightly it’s weird to discuss one without the other (I also feel like Valjean reads as someone with mental health issues—maybe depression—prior to Toulon, but I’m having trouble articulating those thoughts). I already wrote that story, and it’s probably riddled with historical errors, sigh (No Weapon But Hate http://archiveofourown.org/works/732136, warnings longer than summary even though it’s a story about dread more than a story about things actually happening). But I will probably be pestering you with random research questions periodically in the future, if you don’t mind terribly. :-) Oooh, yeah, peritraumatic dissociation makes sense.